1/30/17

This Blog is a Failure

By Grant Davies

When I first started this blog back in 2008 (yes, it has been that long) it looked different than it does now. A lot has changed over the years.

I don't write as much anymore but I don't think that caused the failure. My writing was never very good (in some cases dreadful) but people didn't seem to mind too much if the message I was sending got through.

I will opine that the writing has gotten less dreadful over the years. So the writing itself probably didn't cause the failure. The failure was in the concept, not necessarily the execution.

The current description at the top of the page explains "This is not a political site. This is an anti-political site. Our purpose is to advance civil society and the freedom philosophy and perhaps have a little fun while we're at it." And that is true now. I can't even remember what it was before I changed it to that. But the title of the blog tells what I really wanted the blog to become.

"What we Think and Why" referred to my desire that people could read what I wrote and then comment. What "we" think referred to everyone who read the blog, not just my opinion. The "why" part was my hope that people would not just spout off, agreeing or disagreeing, but explaining why they thought what they thought. Perhaps they would even include links to the articles or studies that explained why.

I was hoping for thoughtful discussion. It didn't happen to any acceptable degree. A few people (not too many) commented on the posts a bit in the beginning. They mostly do not anymore. Those who did were mostly agreeing with me. Affirmation was not my goal.

So, the site has become what I think and why. Question is, who cares? I try to make the topics compelling, but my opinions don't pass the "compelling" test. I post things that I suspect many people haven't spent much time thinking about, much less reading about. The idea wasn't to educate people. After all, who the heck am I to do that? It was an effort to expose people to articles, authors, and concepts they didn't usually address. That part was mostly a success I think.

But the failure was in the communication part. What we've got here, is failure to communicate. And I'm not sure exactly why it works better on some social media, like FaceBook, than it does on this blog.

Anyone who has a thoughtful opinion about what they think about that and why, is invited to comment below. I don't expect a flood of replies because, in that regard, this blog is a failure.

6 comments:

I think at least part of the problem is the changing face of social commentary. Facebook and Twitter being two of the biggest causal factors. A person merely has to go to one place (FB/Twitter) and be connected to copious amounts of diverse OR self serving information and commentary. The transitive nature of both of those media outlets and their counterparts also meets the needs of most users who are not interested in what was said yesterday, or even earlier in the day. We have a new and less contemplative NOW GENERATION.

Blogs like yours are best served by those who choose to meditate on issues and indulge in careful and time consuming scrutiny and research.

I for one enjoy many of your articles. Failure is sometimes hard to define. I don't really think your blog is a failure. I actually am lazy and did not contribute. However, I read your work and it is appreciated.

Thanks. The blog is not a failure per se. Only in regards to the participation level. We have been doing something right because, after all, there have been 121,442 visits in total. The challenge is to make it even better and skip the notion that it will be some discussion group as it's primary focus. Maybe we should change the name? I'll have to consider that.